vintage womens ski jackets for City, sports and snow

Is the summer nearly over? I think the summer’s nearly over. Cue desperate hunt for a winter coat that looks good, is waterproof, and warm too. An impossible task? Pretty much. But that’s when you might turn to vintage womens ski jackets.

Designed specifically for cold, wet weather (well, obviously) they also have a distinct cool factor. Looking at the different types of vintage womens ski jackets, they stretch across eras.

Vintage womens ski jackets for sports and snow

Stylish skier – 1936.

Skiing has, of course, been a practical mode of transport for Alpine locals and anyone else who happened to live on a mountain for a long time. But it first became a fun pastime for non mountain dwellers around the turn of the century, and a fashionable sport for rich Europeans around the 1920s.

To begin with, they adapted Alpine fashions for ski wear – heavy jumpers and knee length socks with knee trousers, little hats, all in warm and water repellant wool. Of course, the locals knew what they were doing with clothing that kept out the weather. But this get up, very practical for skiing in, was just for the men – women were still wearing their long and cumbersome skirts.

Designer vintage womens ski jackets

Elsa Schiaparelli and Gogo, 1934.

Towards the end of the Twenties and beginning of the Thirties this changed as specially designed sportswear for women came in, including lighter weight wool fabrics and slim trousers for women.

This is one area where the question yes, but did the women on the street really wear these outfits or is it just high fashion designs, appearing in fashion drawings and posed photographed, but not really everybody, just didn’t apply for once.

No, the women on the street didn’t wear ski trousers en masse. Because skiing was for the elite. Yes, most women on the slopes did wear trousers, because they were young and rich enough to wear high fashion and keen to follow trends.

This development of practical, comfortable but very stylish ski wear was undoubtedly accelerated because the top women fashion designers were out there posing on the slopes in fashionable ski resorts too – Coco Chanel was a keen skier, and Elsa Schiaparelli and her daughter Gogo could be spotted with skis every season. These dashing women were unlikely to be seen in public in anything less than cutting edge fashions – playing sport or not.

Ski jackets of the 60s, 70s and 80s

Skiing never lost its glamour and technical fabrics developed apace. Skiers wanted lightweight, warm and flattering outfits, and vintage ski jackets for the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s reflect this. Especially towards the eighties, you’ll see vintage womens ski jackets becoming ever more bright and outrageous, made of synthetic fabrics that are fun and easy to spot should you fall down a mountain crevasse.

Film stars in vintage womens ski jackets

There are loads of films that reflect the glamour of skiing or are set on the slopes – an early one, Sun Valley Serenade (1941) stars Sonje Heni, who was a gold medalist ski champion. The film was so popular she went on to produce her own line in ski clothes. It is set in Sun Valley, favoured real life resort of Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth and a galaxy of film stars.

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